In recent years, with rapid progress in the arts concerning immobilized enzymes and immobilized microbes, it has been vigorously attempted to utilize microbes or enzymes as a catalyst for various reactions.
Nitrilase has been known as an enzyme which hydrates nitriles to form corresponding amides. As typical examples of such reactions, there are descriptions that bacteria of the genus Corynebacterium and the genus Nocardia in U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,968 and bacteria of the genus Bacillus, the genus Bacteridium in the sense of Prevot, the genus Micrococcus and the genus Brevibacterium in the sense of Bergy in U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,081 have such nitrilase activity and hydrate acrylonitrile to form acriylamide.